A great way to increase the traffic to your eCommerce store is to coordinate with a specialty blog or website that caters to your target audience. You probably don’t want to target one that already has an eCommerce store, but you can find lots of specialty sites and blogs out there that your target audience likes to frequent.

Guest blogging provides incentives and benefits for both the blog owner and the guest blogger. When a guest post is done well, it provides the blog owner with fresh content for his site. It also provides the guest blogger with a link back to his eCommerce store and increased exposure to his target audience. However, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.

A Guest Blog Post Should Never Be a Sales Pitch

Even though you may offer the greatest deals on rain boots or leather journals, you cannot make your guest blog post about your sales and deals. This is a great way to keep your guest blogging post from ever being accepted, and it is also a great way to close potential doors for future guest blogging opportunities.

Your guest blog post needs to be providing something of value to your target audience. It could be something general that your audience might deal with on a regular basis such as how to access and get the most out of the shopify forums. Or it might be intended merely to amuse and give little known trivia facts that are entertaining to read.

A Guest Blog Post Should Match the General Blog Tone

Your guest blog post for your eCommerce store should look to match the general blog or website tone. Even if your own store tends to have a more serious or whimsical tone to it, it is more important that you follow the standards set out by the blog owner. This also goes for the tone that the blog owner implements unless you get permission otherwise.

A Guest Blog Post Should Link Back to Your Site

To be effective, you do need to make sure that your guest blog post includes a byline and link back to your eCommerce store. After all, the reason that you’re getting involved in guest blogging is to raise awareness for your eCommerce store.

It’s okay if the subject of your blog post has very little to do with what you sell. If it is something that your target audience is interested in and that might lead them to checking out your site later on, you are doing your job well.

A Guest Blog Post is a First Impression on Many Potential Customers

Make sure that your guest blog post is very well written. For many of the readers on that blog, your guest post is their first impression of you. Their first impression of you is likewise an impression of your eCommerce store.

So avoid spelling errors and other similar mistakes. Check to make sure that the writing is engaging, and look for ways to increase your credibility. It’s always a good idea to include some references in your blog posts to key studies and other information that bolster your authority.